President’s weekend in DLR without the kids! (Feb 16-18)

[CAdreamer]

Day 1
Ah yes, a vacation alone. No strollers, no diaper bags, no worries. Where are we going…why, Disneyland of course! My DH and I arrived at Denver International at 6:45am and proceeded to stand in the longest line I have ever seen to check in our bags. As it turns out, this was just the first of many long waits we would encounter during our trip. After another 20 min. wait for security, we caught the train to our gate. As we arrived, excited to board, we found our plane was delayed by 30 minutes. Ok, no big deal. I did have reservations for lunch at the Blue Bayou, but we could still make it in plenty of time. Then the plane was delayed another 30 min. Ok, I’m starting to get annoyed, but we tried to make the best of it and slept at the gate. Finally, the plane arrived and we were off! The take off was very very bumpy leaving Denver, but as for the rest I can’t tell you because my DH and I fell asleep for the rest of the flight. We woke up to the Captain announcing our arrival to Orange County.

The first thing I noticed when we deplaned…the warmth! It was sunny and had to be near 80 degrees already. Yeah! After getting our bags and catching the supershuttle (which was $20 BTW for my DH and I from SNA to the hotel off Harbor) we quickly checked in our hotel, dumped our bags in the room, changed into summer clothes (we did have to dress for the 5 degree weather this morning in Denver), and made a bee line for the park. We had 15 min. before our reservation came up at the Blue Bayou. To our surprise, there was no line getting in. Despite being in a hurry, we stopped at the end of main street and looked at each other with a big smile…we were here! After soaking it up for a minute, we proceeded quickly through Adventure land into New Orleans square and checked in with 5 min. to spare. We had our waterside table after only a 5 min. wait. This was the first time we had been to the Blue Bayou, and the first thing we noticed was how dark it was. I was prepared for dark, but I could barely see where I was going and nearly tripped over a waiter (whoops). After a min. my eyes adjusted, and we ordered the Monte Cristo sandwich that everyone has been raving about. It was sooooo good. But I’m glad that my DH and I split it, because it was very filling! We got some pictures, and with full stomachs we headed out for a day in the park…it was probably 1:45pm by now. We stopped by Indy, but the wait was about 60 min. so we grabbed fast passes for later and headed over to Pirates. The wait was about 15 min, but the Mardi gras celebration was going on right there so I didn’t even noticed the wait as I watched the band. We got the front row, and the ride was great! I love Pirates (I always have) especially the drops at the beginning. The new additions were appreciated by both of us, and we agreed that they didn’t take away from the original at all. We liked Capt. Jack and Davy Jones, but what we really noticed were the cannon balls hitting the water…..we got very wet (the splashes didn’t used to be that high!). After Pirates, we did a loop around the park to see the sights and hop on rides as we felt the need. The ride waits weren’t too bad this day, we walked onto Pirates, HM, Snow white, and Pooh. The other waits were about 15-20 minutes. Even using the fastpass on Indy, it was still a 15 min. wait. And by the time we used our Indy fastpasses and got over to Space Mountain the standby wait was 80 min and all the fast passes were gone. Bummer. But there was always tomorrow! So I got a dole whip float and my DH got a churro and we lapped the park again. The wait for Buzz was only 15 min., so we jumped in line. I enjoyed Buzz more this time, I managed to make level 3 even with my terrible aim! HM was great as usual. It was very cold in there, though, and I was happy to get back outside where it was warm. We went back to the hotel for our sweatshirts at about 7pm, and after reentering the park we rode the jungle cruise and Pooh. Afterwards, we grabbed a Tigger Tail (very good!) and headed over to ride the river boat. I didn’t enjoy this as much during the nighttime. It was harder to see everything. By the time we were off the boat we were ready to get dinner, but we ran into a problem. Most the restaurants were closed already!! We walked around looking for food for awhile, watched the tail end of the fireworks, and finally grabbed some fish and chips at the Golden Horseshoe (thank god they are open late!). The fish was ok, and my hubby was excited to find a hidden Mickey in there, but the wait for the food was long…considering we were only one of three couples getting food.
After eating, we walked onto Pirates and HM again then headed to Main Street for some shopping. My feet were starting to hurt, and my 3 hours sleep from the night before was starting to catch up with me…so we headed out at about 11:30pm. We got back to the hotel, downloaded the day’s pictures onto the laptop, and crashed for the night. We had a busy day coming!

Day Two coming soon…

 

[CAdreamer]

I guess I forgot to clarify that the wait for the rides we went on were only 15-20 min....most all the other rides in the park were 45 min. +++. Space mountain was the longest wait we saw all weekend, with waits up to 90 min. Day 2 coming later today!

 

[staley7580]

Sounds like a blast so far!

 

[Goofster57]

CAdreamer,
Thanks for sharing day 1 with us. The parks were crowded this weekend, yesterday we thought that we would head over to California Adventure thinking it would be less crowded, we were wrong. Still had a great time as always, just made the best of it.

Looking forward to day two

 

[CAdreamer]

Yes, the parks were insanely crowded this weekend. But we knew they would be so it was no big surprise. Here are some pics from our first day...second day trip report still in the works.

 

[CAdreamer]

Day 2

OK, so today was Saturday and we had full intentions of using the early entry that came with our park hopper tickets….but the alarm didn’t go off in our hotel room!!! Ahhh!!! I opened my eyes, realized it was very light out, sat straight up in bed and looked at the alarm clock…7:30am! I had missed it! Darn it! I was mad for a moment and then realized that it was OK. We didn’t have the kids; we would just do Fantasyland at our own pace throughout the day. No problem. But despite running late, I did want to get to the park as soon as possible to snag space mountain fast passes before they were out again. So we took quick showers and headed out. The line to get into the park was much longer today, but we found one that was moving relatively fast and we were through before we knew it. I stood there and smiled for what seemed like forever…I love Disneyland! It was sad to see the train station all covered up, though, it is one of my favorites. So off we were to tomorrow land to get those fast passes. I have never had to stand in line like that for fast passes. As my husband put it, “is there a fastpass line for the fastpasses?” But soon we had ours for a few hours later, and satisfied we headed back out towards Main Street. Then we passed him….it was an army private that thought it would be a real good idea to wear his ACU’s to the park for some extra attention. Now, you have to realize that my DH has been in for 12 years, loves the Army, knows the reg’s, and is more than a bit annoyed at this. Army policy says you cannot wear your uniform unless you have good reason in public (like say, funeral detail...but then you would be in dress uniform). But anyways, I thought he was going to drop this private right there in the park and make him do pushups in front of his girlfriend and the crowd that was starting to stare (here is me, covering my eyes…preparing to get embarrassed). But instead he stands about an inch from his nose and tells him in a low stern voice that he better leave the park and change his clothes immediately…plus a few other choice words. OK, confrontation over…private is looking embarrassed…and I am laughing and trying to drag DH as far from this guy as possible. Phew, confrontation over. Onwards to Frontierland! We take the long way through fantasyland to see what the crowds are like. Yup, it’s crowded. But I noticed that Mr. Toad was only a 10 min. wait, so we jump in line. It was fun as usual, but so short! Peter Pan (another fav of mine) was 45 min. so we continued around and over to Frontierland. The standby wait for Big Thunder Mountain is only 20 min, so we stand in line and wait. My husband HATES roller coasters…but he did BTMR and Space just for me. What a guy! It was fun, but not as fast as I would have liked because we sat in the front (for sake of my DH). I pried his hands off the bar when we were done, and then started looking around for some breakfast. How we ended up at the character breakfast at the Carnation Café…well I’m not quite sure, but it was good (I will never pay that much for breakfast again!). I got to see Pooh, Capt. Hook, and Chip and Dale. Good thing was we were absolutely stuffed…no need for a big lunch. We did a bit of shopping down Main Street, really just kind of enjoying the atmosphere. I wanted to go check out the lines in Fantasyland again, but DH had to use bathroom first. We went right around the corner there from the Carnation Café and while I was standing there waiting…out came Alice, then Goofy, then Pluto, then Mickey followed by a band!! I got a few hugs and high 5’s, but no time for pics…I guess they were off to one of the mini-parades they have there in front of the railroad station. Anyways, DH came out and we did a loop around the park to check things out. When we passed Pirates, I noticed that Capt. Jack was out…I wanted pics with him!! But the line was already closed off. Darn. Oh well, our space mountain fast passes were up and we headed back over to tomorrowland. The standby wait was about 65 min…I was so happy I had a fastpass. But once we handed them our passes…we still had about a 12 min. wait on the inside. As I came up to the loading area, I asked for the front row and got it (DH giving look of death). And we were off…it was cool! I like the music, but I didn’t like that I could see where we were going….the dark is what makes Space Mountain so special. Anyways, I bought the pic of us they took because DH looks like he is enjoying the ride (white-knuckles and all). Then we decide to head over to California Adventure. So we get stamped and head over. As soon as we are in we go and get Soarin fastpasses, then (because of boards like these) I knew that I could go right over and get a Grizzly fastpass. So cool. We had an hour for the River Run, so we walk around and shopped and did Monster’s Inc. It was very cute, much better than that limo ride they used to have over there. Then we walked through the backlot and stopped for frozen lemonade (yum!). It was getting very hot by now, so we were more than ready to take on the river. We handed over our passes and got right onto a raft. It was so much fun; it reminds me of how much I love water parks, too. Oh, did I mention that we got soaked? We ended up backwards down those first couple drops through the caves…and a wave of water came up, over…and all over us!! Even my feet were soaked, but I had on my crocs so it was ok. I dried pretty fast. While we waited for our soarin fastpasses to come around, we walked over to the Grand Californian and proceeded to the bar. After a couple Malibu pineapples (and for my DH…a couple beers) we were ready to head back out into the sun. We walked over to the boardwalk just in time to catch Mater and Lightening McQueen parking. So after some pictures and my DH’s Mater impressions we headed back over to do Soarin. It was so fun, I just love that ride. I could really smell the oranges this time. We walked out in an even better mood, and I laughed as my DH danced to the Beach Boys and dragged me along for the ride. We decide to go back through the GCH and into downtown Disney. We strolled through some shops and then decided to go back to our hotel to put our feet up for an hour or so. We ended up watching Ransom for an hour and a half in the room, and then decided to go back into Disneyland. We walked around and watched the bands, then rode Pirates again. Did I mention that I love that ride?? It was great, and then we went over and got another Tigger Tail. I need a recipe for those, but I’m not sure where I would get orange flavored chocolate. Anyways, we then went over (and despite the 35 min wait) stood in line for Peter Pan because there was no way I was going to miss it. Is it just me, or did they move the blocks around again in the nursery?? By now they were starting to get ready for the fireworks, and we were ushered out of that part of fantasyland. So we headed over to do It’s a small world. After the ride, we headed towards Main Street to watch the fireworks…but everything was roped off already and packed with people. We were pushed on by CM’s as the fireworks started, and ended up right at the entrance to Frontierland while the firework show finished. We then did a loop around and rode the monorail over to Downtown Disney to find some dinner. The wait at the Rainforest café was only 15 min. because it was so late…but we got a table after 5 min. We ordered appetizers, and I got the quesadilla…it was quite good. I liked the pita bread they used. By the time we were done eating it was 11pm, so we went through DTD and back towards the hotel for the night. Another fun day in the park was over, and tomorrow was still ahead of us.
Day 3 coming later….

 

[CAdreamer]

a couple pics from day 2....

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Day 2
Then we passed him….it was an army private that thought it would be a real good idea to wear his ACU’s to the park for some extra attention. Now, you have to realize that my DH has been in for 12 years, loves the Army, knows the reg’s, and is more than a bit annoyed at this. Army policy says you cannot wear your uniform unless you have good reason in public (like say, funeral detail...but then you would be in dress uniform). But anyways, I thought he was going to drop this private right there in the park and make him do pushups in front of his girlfriend and the crowd that was starting to stare (here is me, covering my eyes…preparing to get embarrassed). But instead he stands about an inch from his nose and tells him in a low stern voice that he better leave the park and change his clothes immediately…plus a few other choice words. OK, confrontation over…private is looking embarrassed…and I am laughing and trying to drag DH as far from this guy as possible. Phew, confrontation over.

My dad was in the Army in the '60s, and we traveled the world a bit then; this used to be a VERY BIG DEAL. (But then lots of things were a big deal then, ladies had to wear gloves and attend officers' wives teas and so forth.) Thought maybe this had changed, but apparently not!

I'm just curious; how does someone out of uniform identify his own rank to a subordinate? Or is a private to assume anyone yelling at him nose-to-nose must be a superior?

I'm also curious what he said to your DH? Or did he just slither out of the park without saying a word?

 

[Goofster57]

Hey the pictures are a great addition.

So I have to ask did your DH use his Mater voice when he was conversating with the Private?

Looking forward to the next installment

 

[CAdreamer]

I'm not sure if he identified his rank or not (I stood way back and watched)...but DH asked him why he was in uniform...private said he thought it would be ok to come to DL like that. DH told him he was out of regulation and he needed to leave and change. I'm sure if the private asked, my DH would be more than happy to have given him his ID card to look at...but at this point I think he probably realized he shouldn't have been there like that. My DH looks military, and he talks to privates a bit like a drill sgt (poor guys!). Said private claimed stupidity (he didn't know he was out of reg's...and maybe he really didn't). He really shouldn't have been there in uniform...but I hope my DH didn't ruin his trip to DL! I would feel terrible! This guy was obviously very new to the military...he didn't have a combat patch on his uniform (= no deployments).

I did not feel terrible, however, when he stopped another group of privates in the airport (also in ACU's, but obviously coming back from basic or a school) and asked one why he had on his uniform with his hair spiked into a mohawk. Ah, the joys of being a military spouse.

 

[Alex2kMommy]

Your husband was rightly offended, and spoke up. You probably were embarrassed, and I don't blame you standing faaaar back. But it does sound pretty funny the way you describe it!

My DH often gets mistaken for being a cop, which cracks me up! People say the darndest things to him.

Great pictures, by the way. And I'll have to try a Malibu pineapple next trip - Sounds yummy!

 

[AJA55]

After reading this I have to look up what a Malibu Pineapple was…YUMMY Oh and great trip report.